I research, write about innovation, privacy and reputation via my books and articles, and work on it with clients as president of Arcadia, a communications research, design & delivery lab focused on today's most important, cutting-edge issues. I have 30+ years of professional experience working at big ad/PR agencies and at major brands, and I'm a Senior Fellow Emeritus at the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History.

The author is a Forbes contributor. The opinions expressed are those of the writer.

Microsoft Could Change The World With Windows 8

Microsoft reported earlier this week that it had sold 60 million Windows 8 licenses since its newest operating system went on sale on October 26 last year. That’s a boatload of units, though it roughly kept pace with number of PCs shipped during the fourth quarter (just under 90 million). So the idea that its sales kinda fell off the back of a truck isn’t that far off. Industry analysts weren’t overjoyed with holiday sales, with IDC suggesting Microsoft heavily advertised the touch capabilities of its OS while the machines on store shelves didn’t always offer it.

Really? Consumers turned out in droves for that cool new Windows touch functionality?

I predicted that nobody would care about Microsoft’s new OS products because the company would produce brilliantly generic marketing. They’ve lived down to my expectations, doing their best to tell us that Windows 8 devices work like iPads. The TV spots have been endearing little snippets of digital lifestyles that could have been sponsored by any tech brand. Even a budget north of $1 billion hasn’t changed the fact that they have expertly told us nothing compelling about what they’re selling.

I hate the fact that I was mostly right, wishful arguments of “it takes time” and the stark fact of 60 million unit sales aside…because Microsoft deserves so much more. Yup. I said it: not just more, but better.

Windows 8 is a revelation, at least to those of us who haven’t been initiated into the ranks of all-knowing Digerati (i.e. consumers). It is a total rethinking of device interface that seems on par with the way Apple gave us icons and apps instead of a Start Menu…or maybe the very GUI on which all Macs and PCs are based. It changes the way we envision our gizmos, seeing them less as collections in our hands of things that run on our command, and more as live connectors to communities/content around us.

It’s a big deal, only you wouldn’t know it from the company’s marketing. So here are three ways Microsoft could change its marketing, and perhaps change the world:

Stress differences, not similarities. The idea behind Windows 8 is that it’s a next generation operating system that gets out of the way between people and what they want to do (or something like that). Talk about it in big, bold terms, focusing on what it does differently and demonstrating how that’s better, not just more fun. It’s a new way of interacting with devices that, once experienced, changes your approach forever after; it’s the design bar for others, including Apple, to strive toward. In other words, talk like an industry leader, not a committee.

I would shelve all the feel-good ads and come out with really blunt, Big Picture spots about the NextGen OS (or the Last OS?). Call it “invisible” or something — maybe the punchline is that Microsoft has blown up the OS on which it was built — and give us tangible things it does (and other operating systems don’t). I’d scrap all the pretty imagery on the company’s home page and replace it with a fully-functioning Windows 8 simulator so people could see and play with how their PCs would be different. And touch? Zzzzz. Nice to have, but it’s a cost-of-entry function at this point.

Enable new device engagement. If the tiles interface is as cool as I think it is, Microsoft should offer unique services (or access to them in unique ways) that accentuate the benefits of the interface. Offering just another way to click through to Facebook isn’t such a big deal; what does Windows 8 do differently? Why aren’t there proprietary tiles that aggregate functions and/or create new tools (and if there are, why the hell doesn’t anybody know about them)? Spend marketing dollars on this stuff instead of pretty ads.

Here are a few thought-starters: Instead of giving kids access to the cloud, which is kinda like inviting them to walk the streets of a major city unaccompanied by an adult, create a protected kid cloud for the exclusive use of Windows 8 families. Host a massive developer contest for new tile functions or services. Create online communities and actively manage conversations on really timely stuff, like gun control, and thereby elevate the identity and status of product users to something more than just the non-Apple crowd.

Invent the industry’s next pricing structure. Microsoft’s pricing strategy is cutting-edge circa 1950 or so, and it gets rather Byzantine when it comes to different versions for different users (a matrix has often been invoked, which is a kiss of death for any self-respecting communicator). Scrap the traditional pricing nonsense and figure out how Windows 8 buyers could be subscribers to the OS. This would redefine how they think of it (and the brand), and it would be in keeping with the live, interactive nature of the interface.

Once the company figured out the basic pricing structure, it could come up with a way to incentivize usage and ownership over time…so that when Windows 9 comes around, people will have all but already bought it/into it. This new product should be a chance to lock folks into a lifestyle that they won’t want to leave because it works so wonderfully and is priced so fairly.

There’s so much Microsoft could do to truly change the world, and $1 billion could finance a lot of much. 60 million units sold might be on track with past Windows launches, but the company should be shooting for a far more successful future. Their goal should be to inspire people to flock to stores looking for the OS.

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Your iPhone and Android is only “Leased” if you think about it. You rather have to: 1. Pray it lasts long enough to pay for the $500 list price 2. Pay insurance 3. Replace it every 2 years, like everybody else

Robert, you make a good point. I’m still a bit troubled about how ‘free’ data on our every online activity has become, in that it gets monetized all over the place by everyone except the folks who generate it. I’m half convinced that I really don’t care about ‘owning’ my data as much as I want to get paid when others use it.

Thank you for your words. Your call on the subscription model being important is a very good point, and I agree that the computing/gaming industry will continue to move that way.

The usage of personal data is a new dynamic. I see it as another way to pay for services, as watching advertisements were in the past. It seems that data collection will be another un-reimbursed revenue stream for companies, similar as advertising. I would love a percent!

LOL! One of the best belly laughs of the year about “the OS that’s the perfect Christmas gift for someone you hate”.

The Windows 8 Disaster Continues to Unfold, Just as Predicted: “Looks like 2013 is not going to be a good year for PC vendors.” It’s going to be one of the worst years in a very long time for PC vendors and retailers, and it’s all because the fools stupidly drank the Windows 8 Kool-Aid.

Touch screen laptops were a miserable failure two years ago when they were promoted as the next “must have” gadget. Don’t know why Microsoft thought things would be different now. No one really needs touch on a PC, and all Windows 8 does is turn a vastly overpriced touch-screen-enabled PC into a cellphone look-alike anyway. Gosh, who wouda thunk consumers wouldn’t jump at a deal like that!

And does Microsoft really expect 100 million CAD/CAM designers, accountants, and other industrial content makers and knowledge workers to hold their arms up all day inaccurately poking smudges on their 42″ vertical monitors with their fat fingers, working at 1/100th the speed as before Windows 8 with 1000 times the physical effort?

Different isn’t necessarily good. Ask Ford about the Edsel and Coke about New Coke. What is good is something that is better, faster, and/or cheaper than before, and Windows 8 is not any of these. Not only is Metro UI a throwback to the 1996 AOL interface, but the Metro Apps themselves have been crippled, with Live Mail no longer supporting POP3 and IE10 crippled for Flash. Oh yeah, and Windows 8 no longer plays DVDs and the Start Menu has been removed! Just can’t understand why Windows 8 isn’t a roaring success. Perhaps you’re right and Microsoft should spend another billion on advertising promoting these differences.

Microsoft totally jumped the shark with Windows 8, and the unfolding Windows 8 disaster shows how totally out of touch Microsoft management is with reality. Steve Ballmer will be fired by the end of the year if the Microsoft board wants to have any chance of saving their company from totally clueless management.

As for the rest, maybe the next time Microsoft comes out with a “game-changing” operating system, maybe they’ll take a cold hard look at reality themselves to make sure “game-changing” doesn’t actually mean “game-destroying”.

Wow, that’s a lot of great, insider insight into the shortcomings of Microsoft’s software, and I think you’re right on much of it. Where I think you’re wrong is that the vast majority of people (myself included) are willing to be educated and helped along when it comes to using machines of any kind. The attributes of Windows 8 that you say aren’t so hot might still be a vast improvement to those of us who aren’t initiated into tech history.

My observation is that nobody has really ‘drunk the Kool-Aid’ on Windows 8. It’s getting marketed as ‘the next OS that comes after Windows 7.’ The emphasis on touch tech (as you correctly note) far, far off-base.

I don’t actually think that Microsoft can spend its way past this challenge. The point of my essay was that they need to think about what they do differently, which I think was where you ended up at the end of your comment, too.

I’ve just spent the last 5 hours using Windows 8, specifically I’ve just spent the last 5 hours trying to install another OS alongside Widows 8 so that I don’t have to use it. Windows 8 is a disaster. Everything seems to be counterintuitive. You spend ages clicking around a blank screen to try to get a response out of it. It may be flashy. It may be “the future” but it stinks for any type of productivity. Click on the office button and it asks you for *more* money to download their office suite. Don’t do it. Don’t reward their anti-competitive nonsense, go for LibreOffice or another free alternative (and be sure you pay a part of what you would have paid for office to the developers of these fine products). And don’t get me started on “secure boot”…

What irks me more than anything about Microsoft is that included in your figures for sales is my purchase. I didn’t want to buy a computer with Microsoft installed, but there really isn’t any other sensibly priced options. The alternatives; Ubuntu, Mint, Debian, BSD, etc are all so much nicer to use, have a freindlier support base (composed of enthusiasts, not paid robots), and support innovation and freedom of choice.

David, I feel your pain! I remember years ago shuddering at the threat of every new update download because I knew it would reset somethingoranother and complicate my life.

I wonder whether anything about a computer UI is “intuitive,” though. We aren’t born with the skills to click on buttons or swipe icons; we learn them, and your sorry tale is proof that Microsoft has done a poor job of educating you on its new OS. It may well not be right for you, but I think that its marketing of happy people touching tiles to chat (or whatever) is so thin compared to the opportunity…and challenge…of truly communicating the qualities of the Windows 8 experience.

Re sensibly priced options, I’ve never gotten up the guts to buy a Linux box, though I have friends who say it’s great (they’re usually more technically literate than I am, tho). There is always…Apple…though I’m making NO recommendation.

I appreciate your reply Jonathan. But lets look at this web-page right here. Do you have a minimalist layout with no buttons or clues as to how to use the site? No. You have a drop down menu. Why? Because drop down menus *work*. They let you see where you are, where you’ve come from, and how to go back. Once Microsoft realise how their mistake how long will it take them to try to extract more money from people for a further “upgrade” to get you back to the Windows 7 experience? I wouldn’t put it past them.

People are already making apps (e.g. http://www.stardock.com/products/start8/) and charging money to do it.

On the plus side it may make people like yourself who’ve never tried Linux or BSD give them a try. They are actually easier to use than Microsoft in my opinion (and in the opinion of my 82-year-old mother….)

David, again, good points. We’ve been taught to use our devices a certain way; we have genetic proclivities for certain actions, but education (and user interest) are the key qualities…which I maintain Microsoft has failed to address in its marketing communications. Windows 8 is a radical departure from what we expected, which means the company should have been laying the groundwork for it with detailed and focused effort many months before the shrink-wrapped units shipped. They didn’t…it was more business as usual, and they’re paying the price for it now. So, it seems, are you.

Regarding Windows 7, I still have a box in my basement running XP that I’ll never change because it works for what I need it to do. This idea of purpose is huge. Nobody asked for a next-gen operating system (any more than we asked for a new OS every 18 months). It is up to Microsoft to help us understand why it’s not just different but, to your point, better.

When I carry my Surface around I get total strangers asking me these most common questions; 1. Do you like it? 2. Is it better than an iPad? 3. What did it cost?

I answer; - Yes, I love it - Better? Its refreshingly different and base on the fact I do not like Apple I would say its better. - $500 with the touch-pad.

Invariably I receive a warm reply not a cold one which tells me the marking is peaking interest but NOT driving sales.

But like Jon has stated, I am ALLWAYS pointing out the differences for those asking more questions not the similarities. I don’t know how many I have convinced to try it but I am seeing more in the Starbucks I frequent and they seem happy as well.

Microsoft is definitely onto something here and like the iPad, once it takes a foothold, acquires more useful apps and people realize for the same price of an iPad their are really getting a for more powerful device this trend will shift in the companies favor.